Snaps: Peer-to-peer and academic support in developing clinical skills excellence in under-graduate nursing students: An exploratory study.

Peer to peer learning is not a new concept. It has proven to be a valuable approach to enhance deeper learning, improve critical thinking and problem solving. It has been used in the clinical environment, the classroom and the clinical skills laboratory.

Dental students and bloodborne pathogens: occupational exposures, knowledge, and attitudes.

Dental professionals may be exposed to bloodborne pathogens in their work, and dental students may be a particularly vulnerable group. Fear of exposure has also been linked to discriminatory practices. A cross-sectional survey of dental students was conducted at one U.

Early postoperative outcomes and blood product utilization in adult cardiac surgery: the post-aprotinin era.

Background: Aprotinin was a commonly used pharmacological agent for homeostasis in cardiac surgery but was discontinued, resulting in the extensive use of lysine analogues. This study tested the hypothesis that early postoperative adverse events and blood product utilization would affected in this post-aprotinin era.

Methods And Results: Adult patients (n=781) undergoing coronary artery bypass, valve replacement, or both from November 1, 2005, to October 31, 2008, at a single institution were included.

Nursing students' perceptions of the academic impact of various health issues.

Nursing education is a challenging experience for many students, particularly those facing physical illness or emotional upset. Although we know that stress affects student learning, the impact of other health concerns is less well known. On the basis of their study, the authors discuss the most frequent and threatening health concerns reported by students, including sleep difficulties, interpersonal concerns (concerns about troubled friends or family members, and relationship difficulty), and mental health concerns (depression/anxiety/seasonal affective disorder and stress), and the implications for faculty and the provision of comprehensive student support services follows.

Linking learning and health: a pilot study of medical students' perceptions of the academic impact of various health issues.

Objective: To assess medical students' experience with a wide variety of health concerns and their perceptions of the impact of these health concerns on their academic performance.

Methods: The National College Health Assessment (NCHA) was administered to all students enrolled at a single medical school during the spring term of 2005.

Results: Students reported the greatest perceived negative academic impact related to experiencing interpersonal concerns (concerns about troubled friends or family members, death of a friend or family member, and relationship difficulty) and mental health concerns (depression/anxiety/seasonal affective disorder and stress).

Detection, evaluation, and treatment of eating disorders the role of the primary care physician.

Objective: To describe how primary care clinicians can detect an eating disorder and identify and manage the associated medical complications.

Design: A review of literature from 1994 to 1999 identified by a MEDLINE search on epidemiology, diagnosis, and therapy of eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa.

Measurements And Main Results: Detection requires awareness of risk factors for, and symptoms and signs of, anorexia nervosa (e.

Preventing HIV transmission: behavior and attitudes of medical house staff in a high-prevalence area.

Our objective was to evaluate human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) risk-factor assessment and counseling behavior in 86 medical house staff and to ascertain the effect of question format (closed versus open) on reported physician behaviors. We designed a cross-sectional survey using a self-report questionnaire; we received 78 returns of 86 questionnaires (91% response) from one-year and three-year medical housestaff at two general medical clinics in a university-affiliated Bronx municipal hospital. House staff reported assessing sexual behavior (51%) and intravenous drug use (81%) in new patients significantly less often than they assessed smoking (95%) or alcohol use (94%).

Breast cancer screening for elderly women with and without comorbid conditions. A decision analysis model.

Objective: To determine whether breast cancer screening extends life for women aged 65 years or more with and without comorbid medical conditions.

Setting: A provider-patient encounter.

Design: A decision analysis of the utility of screening for breast cancer.

Hypertension in women: what is really known? The Women's Caucus, Working Group on Women's Health of the Society of General Internal Medicine.

Purpose: To determine whether there is sufficient information in the medical literature to guide appropriate treatment of hypertensive women.

Data Identification: Epidemiologic surveys of hypertension, clinical trials of antihypertensive therapy, and studies of selected adverse effects of antihypertensive agents were identified through a computerized search using MEDLINE and by identifying all studies cited in current medical textbooks as supporting evidence for the guidelines for the treatment of hypertensive individuals. All epidemiologic studies selected were cross-sectional or longitudinal, multicenter, population-based surveys.

Cancer screening in women: a study of house staff behavior.

To explore physician, patient, and provider factors associated with house staff performance of cancer screening in women, we reviewed 565 randomly selected charts of 58 medical residents in two San Francisco teaching hospitals, H1 and H2. We assessed performance of Pap smear, breast exam, mammography, rectal exam, and stool occult blood testing, and administered questionnaires to all residents to ascertain screening beliefs and attitudes and individual screening criteria. The main finding was a significant difference in screening between the two hospitals.

Hydroxylysine excretion does not indicate collagen damage with downhill running in young men.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether urinary excretion of hydroxylysine (HO-Lys) is increased following prolonged, predominantly downhill running. Such an increase would be evidence of exercise-induced collagen damage. Each of ten young men performed a treadmill running test to determine VO2peak (an approximation of VO2max) followed by 60 min of intermittent running on -10% slope.

Spontaneous speaking fundamental frequency of 6-year-old black children.

The fundamental vocal frequency characteristics were measured from 50 male and 50 female Black 6-year-old children during prompted spontaneous speech. Boys had a mean fundamental frequency of 219.50 Hz, with a mean range of 134.

Pap smear screening in women 65 and older.

Pap smear screening in women 65 years of age and older is controversial. To assess the need to offer screening in this group, we examined Pap results of women 65 and older whose charts were reviewed as part of a cancer screening study in two San Francisco hospitals. Two hundred thirty women (41%) were 65 years of age or older (mean age, 73).

Recovery of function after hip fracture. The role of social supports.

Previous studies have found that social support may reduce mortality after myocardial infarction and reduce overall mortality among the elderly. To determine whether social support also influences the recovery of function among patients who have had hip fractures and to describe other potential predictors of recovery after hip fracture, 111 patients with hip fractures were interviewed and examined before discharge from the hospital. The functional status of surviving patients was assessed again 6 months later.

Coordinating drug use and exercise in elderly hypertensives.

In the elderly hypertensive who maintains an active lifestyle, exercise and medication can interact due to age-related changes, resulting in reduced therapeutic effect. Underlying physiologic principles and indications for exercise therapy in geriatric hypertension are discussed as an aid toward deriving the greatest benefit and fewest side effects from concomitant drug therapy in non-sedentary elderly hypertensives, an expanding patient subgroup.

Aspects of medical care of Soviet Jewish Emigrés.

Soviet Jewish emigrés are a recently arrived refugee group in San Francisco and in other cities in the United States. They have frequently been perceived as a demanding and complaining population, particularly the elderly, often chronically ill members. These behaviors can also be seen as positive survival mechanisms that have evolved in response to the Soviet health care system and cultural background.

Palliative treatment of carcinoma of the esophagus.

In a ten-year period 139 patients with epidermoid carcinoma of the esophagus were treated by palliative feeding procedures, palliative radiation therapy, radiation therapy for cure, or resection. Analysis of the results of these modes of therapy indicates that long-term palliation is best achieved when resection is the primary method of therapy. Radiation therapy improved survival in the first 12 months of disease; however, no patients treated with radiation therapy alone were cured.